LAWS, SAUSAGES AND DEMOCRATIC ENDORSEMENTS

By Celia Cohen
Grapevine Political Writer

To laws and sausages, the things that Otto von
Bismarck said it was better not to see made, you could
add an endorsement from the Delaware Democratic Party.

The party's state executive committee made its most
significant decisions of the 2008 campaign season when
it voted Wednesday evening in Dover to bestow its
statewide endorsements, giving the most glittering one
to John Carney in the primary for governor on Sept. 9
against Jack Markell.

There were also a couple of expected endorsements for
Joe Biden for the Senate and Matt Denn for lieutenant
governor, an afterthought of one for Gene Reed running
in a three-way primary for insurance commissioner, and
nothing at all for either of the political orphans
chasing after Republican Mike Castle for the Congress.

Despite the sky-high interest in the endorsement for
governor, the party would rather it not be examined too
closely, no more than sausages are. A lot was supposed
to be kept under wraps.

No one in authority would say what the vote was. No
one in authority would say who attended the executive
committee meeting. No one in authority would say how the
members voted.

John Daniello, the state chair, gruffly said it was
the executive committee's choice not to say.

Not that it was impossible to find out. There are no
secrets in Delaware. Especially none in the Democratic
Party, as gloriously unruly as it is. On a motion to
endorse Carney, the 23 members of the executive
committee voted: 13 yes, one no, seven abstaining and
two absent.

It was not unanimous. Maybe that cat was not supposed
to come out of the bag.

The meeting itself was not publicized, nothing about
it on the party's Web site, no press release advancing
it. Some of the executive committee members themselves
were not entirely sure the votes on the endorsements
would be on the agenda.

"We held a quarterly meeting. There were motions. We
had to honor those motions," Daniello said.

The only word of what happened was a party-issued
press release, which came afterwards. It did not reach
Delaware Grapevine until an e-mail Wednesday after 10
p.m.

It is hard to think of what more the party could have
done to make the endorsement look like a back room deal.
It even met in a place called the Lobby House. The name
reeks of political intrigue.

The conclusion belied what the party said it was
trying to do -- an open accounting that began with the
candidates going to the Democratic committees for the
representative districts, the three counties and the
city of Wilmington to build up support.

Still, the prize is the prize. "Getting the
endorsement of the Democratic Party in a primary is a
big deal," said David Hamrick, the campaign manager for
Carney. "I think the endorsement was a public process,
done at the grassroots level of the party. Hundreds of
local Democrats across the state participated."

Markell's side shrugged it off. "I care about the
election on Sept. 9, when all the Democrats vote, less
so how the executive committee makes its decision," said
Andrew Roos, who is Markell's campaign manager.

The Democrats' procedure for endorsing had nothing in
common with the one for the Republicans, as the other
party did not mind pointing out. The Republicans drafted
Bill Lee as their endorsed candidate for governor at a
convention with press coverage, as 310 delegates voted
250-60 for Lee over Mike Protack.

"It doesn't surprise me when you're dealing with a
party that for 16 years has operated outside the public
interest, a party based basically in cronyism and
incompetence," said Tom Ross, the Republican state
chair.

"Ours was a public vote. We had an open process where
anybody could be nominated. 'Draft Bill Lee' was a
grassroots campaign."

The Democrats' executive committee meeting was
closely held. Its own members were told of it only a
week or so in advance. Not everyone realized the
endorsements would be considered, although the
candidates were told.

Some committee members happened to hear from others
that they would be voting. National Committeeman Rhett
Ruggerio, one of the few willing to talk publicly, said
he found out only after calling state headquarters on
Monday to ask about the agenda.

Carney won the endorsement with strong support from
the party leadership along with upstate Democrats
present from New Castle County and Wilmington. He did
not receive any "yes" votes downstate from Democrats
representing Kent County or Sussex County.

Valentine said her "no" vote was not a rejection of
Carney but a protest because not all of the local
committees have voted on their endorsements yet. "It has
nothing to do with John or Jack. I would have liked to
see all the districts complete the process before we
voted," she said.

Betts had a similar explanation for the three
abstentions from Kent County, where the Democratic
committee plans to discuss its endorsements next month.

"We went not voting. We're still in the process of
finding our way through this. It's not easy. We'd like
to go with all of our districts united, and we've got
local candidates who need these guys to help on their
campaigns. We don't want to make anybody mad. We've got
two very good candidates running," Betts said.

Daniello said he withheld his vote because he did not
want to appear to be directing the course of the
endorsement.

The cloistered voting was a far cry from the way the
Democrats handled their statewide endorsements for the
last election. In 2006 the executive committee members
cast their votes during a state convention at Wesley
College in Dover. There were 200 people present, and the
press was invited. The candidates came and gave
speeches.

The Lobby House or Wesley College, either scene was
allowable under the Democrats' party rules, although
they left different impressions. Perhaps not different
outcomes.

"I don't know what would have changed if the meeting
was held at a forum like the last one," Ruggerio said.
"John Daniello is a pretty strong leader with pretty
strong beliefs and opinions. He's done very well, so
people give him the benefit of the doubt."

This is politics. Endorsements, like sausages, are
not for the squeamish.